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OF

THE CHIEF JUSTICES

OF

ENGLAND.

FROM THE NORMAN CONQUEST TILL THE DEATH
OF LORD TENTERDEN.

BY JOHN LORD CAMPBELL, LL.D., F.R.S.E.,

AUTHOR OF

'THE LIVES OF THE LORD CHANCELLORS OF ENGLAND.'

THIRD EDITION.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.-VOL. I.

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1874.

The right of Translation is reserved.

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LIVES OF THE LORD CHANCELLORS, AND KEEPERS OF THE GREAT SEAL OF ENGLAND, from the Earliest Times till the Reign of George the Fourth. By JOHN LORD CAMPBELL, LL.D. Fourth Edition. 10 vols. Crown 8vo. 6s.

each.

"A work of sterling merit-one of very great labour, of richly diversified interest, and, we are satisfied, of lasting value and estimation. We doubt if there be half-a-dozen living men who could produce a Biographical Series on such a scale, at all likely to command so much applause from the candid among the learned as well as from the curious of the laity."-Quarterly Review.

LONDON PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET

AND CHARING CROSS.

TO THE

HONOURABLE DUDLEY CAMPBELL.

MY DEAR DUDLEY,

As you have chosen the noble though arduous profession of the Law, I dedicate to you the LIVES OF THE CHIEF JUSTICES, in the hope that they may stimulate in your bosom a laudable ambition to excel, and that they may teach you industry, energy, perseverance, and self-denial. Learn that, by the exercise of these virtues, there is no eminence to which you may not aspire,—and, from the examples here set before you, ever bear in mind that truly enviable reputation is only to be acquired by independence of character, by political consistency, and by spotless purity both in public and private life.

I cannot hope to see you enjoying high professional distinction; but, when I am gone, you may rescue my name from oblivion, and, if I should be forgotten by all the world besides, you will tenderly remember

Your ever affectionate Father,

CAMPBELL.

PREFACE

ΤΟ

VOLUMES I. AND II. OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION.

[PUBLISHED IN 1849.]

My original design was to be the biographer of the most eminent Magistrates who have presided in Westminster Hall. This was not completed by writing the LIVES OF THE CHANCELLORS, for many of our most important and interesting legal worthies never held the Great Seal. Some of them-as LORD COKE and LORD HALE-had not the offer of it, from the preference naturally given to mediocrity; and others as LORD HOLT and LORD MANSFIELD-resolutely refused the offer, because they preferred the functions of a Common Law Judge. I should not, therefore, have contributed my proposed share of honour to the deceased, or of instruction to the rising generation, without adding the LIVES OF THE CHIEF JUSTICES.

I confess, likewise, that I was eager to trace the history of those who had illustrated the department of English jurisprudence to which, while at the bar, I chiefly addicted myself. I may not be altogether unqualified for the task, as I have been long familiar

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